The Jewish colonisation in Palestine, its history and its prospects

THE

JEWISH COLONISATION
IN PALESTINE

ITS HISTORY AND ITS PROSPECTS

By

S. TOLKOWSKY

(Agricultural Engineer, Jaffa).

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Published by Zionist Organisation (London Bureau),
35, Empire House, 175, Piccadilly, W. 1»

PRICE 4d.

..artKY

The Jewish Colonisation

in Palestine.

ITS HISTORY AND ITS PROSPECTS.

By S. TOLKOWSKY (Agricultural Engineer, Jaffa).

THE idea of an agricultural colonisation of Palestine
by the Jews is not an entirely new one. As early as
the end of the sixteenth century Don Joseph Nasi, a
Jewish Duke of Naxos, began to rebuild the town of Tiberias,
and in order to induce the inhabitants to take up silk culture,
he planted there a large number of mulberry-trees. In 1629
Moses ben Joseph of Trani reported that the Jews of Palestine
were engaged in the cultivation of cotton, cereals, and
vegetables, and in the rearing of silkworms and bees.* It
is difficult to say precisely for what reasons they subsequently
abandoned agriculture ; the fact remains that a century
ago the eight or ten thousand Jews who inhabited Palestine
were strictly confined to a few towns (Jerusalem, Tiberias,
Safed), and had 'no relations with any Jewish community
outside the country.

It wa; not until about the middle of last century that the
European Jews began to interest themselves in the possibility
of an agricultural colonisation of Palestine. In 1854 Sir
Moses Montefiore, whose interest had been aroused as a
consequence of several visits to the country, was received
by the Sultan, and had an -interview with the British
Ambassador, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, regarding purchases
of land which he wished to make in Palest ine.f The practical
result of his efforts was that he gave thirty-five families of
Safed the necessary means for setting up farms.

About 1860 some Russian Rabbis started a project for

* D. Trietsch : " Palastina-Handbuch " (1912).

+ In 1845 Colonel Gawler. a British officer, founded a colonising society with the same
object, but in view of the unsettled situation which followed the Turco-Egyptian War,
his projects could not be realised, (D. Trietsch, op. cit.)

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colonising Palestine with Russian and Rumanian Jews,
and thanks to the support of liberal Jewish circles, the Alliance
Israelite Universelle of Paris became interested in the idea.
This society sent a special envoy to make an investigation
on the spot, and as a result of his report it was decided to
found in Palestine an agricultural school for Jewish children
of the Near Eastern countries. The Ottoman Government
granted the society 625 acres of land situated near Jaffa,
on the road to Jerusalem, and it is here that, in 1870, was
founded the farm-school of Mikweh-Israel, in which the pupils
are taught all branches of agriculture, and in particular the
culture of the vine and of other fruits. Many old pupils of
this school are to-day teachers of agriculture in the schools
of various Jewish colonies ; others are engaged in practical
agriculture in Palestine or in the neighbouring Turkish
provinces, as well as in Egypt.

In 1878 the idea of a Jewish settlement in Palestine was
again broached by Laurence Oliphant and the Earl of
Shaftesbury, with the result that some Jews of Jerusalem
bought from an Arab of Jaffa 675 acres of land, situated nine
miles from that city, on the banks of the River Audja, and
there founded the colony of Petach-Tikwah.

About the same time the persecutions of the Jews in Russia
and Rumania, having become more severe, caused the idea
of emigration and national settlement in Palestine to gain
ground among the intellectual circles of those countries. In
Russia were formed students' clubs, the members of which
intended to emigrate in groups to Palestine in order to become
there the pioneers of colonisation ; and at the same time a
great colonising society was founded under the name of Chovere
Zion (Lovers of Zion). It was partly such groups of students,
and partly isolated arrivals from Russia and Rumania, who,
between 1882 and 1884, founded in Judaea the colonies of
Rishon-le-Zion, Wad-el-Chanin, and Katrah ; in Samaria
that of Zichr on- Jacob ; and in Galilee those of Rosh-Pinah,
Yessod - Hamaaleh, and Mish?nar - Hajarden. But the
inhabitants of all these colonies had to cope with most serious
obstacles. They were all children of the towns ; none of
them had the slightest knowledge of agriculture. Moreover,
the conditions of the country to which they came were entirely
different from anything that they had ever seen before.
Ignorant of the language and the customs of the Arab
inhabitants, unacquainted with the local laws, unfamiliar
with those elementary principles of hygiene, the non-observance
of which could not remain unpunished in a country where
malaria-fever and other epidemic diseases were rampant,
these first pioneers of Jewish colonisation in Palestine found
themselves confronted with a task the execution of which

exceeded by far the possibilities of their very limited financial
means and their still less adequate technical training.

The difficulties resulting from their unpreparedness were
intensified yet further by the unfavourable conditions prevailing
in the country. Public safety was only a word in Palestine
at that time. Public hygiene did not receive the least attention
from the authorities, and the result was that the most
important inland towns, as well as the greatest part of the
maritime plain, were infested with malaria-fever and different
eye-diseases. There were no physicians, no chemists, no
hospitals. There was as yet not a single railway line, and
the few roads existing of old had been so neglected that they
had become absolutely impracticable ; in fact, carriages,
camels, and horses used to travel through the fields alongside
the roads, the latter serving only to show the right way.
Cattle-breeding was almost impossible, because ever-recurring
epidemics, which nobody attempted to fight, were allowed
every two or three years to ravage the herds throughout
the country. As for agriculture proper, there was no expert
guidance as to which plants could most profitably be grown,
and as to the methods of growing them ; and in the absence
of any guidance in this respect, the only way open to the
Jewish settlers was to take a lead from the surrounding Arab
population and to try to imitate as best they could the methods
used by them. Unfortunately, however, the fellaheen, with
their typical Oriental lack of foresight, which makes them
constantly sacrifice the future to the present, have no other
principle of agriculture than to try to make their fields yield
as much as they can with their very primitive methods, and
without ever troubling themselves about destroying weeds,
removing stones, or even maintaining the fertility of the
soil by replacing, in the shape of manures, the elements which
the crops have taken away. It does not need the mind of
an expert to understand that centuries of such treatment
must have resulted in a heavy strain upon the once
proverbial natural fertility of the soil of Palestine ;
but although in consequence of this decrease of fertility
the yields of the - crops have become very poor, they
are still sufficient to meet the needs of the Arab
population, whose standard of living is extremely low.
Not so with the Jewish immigrants, who brought with them
requirements, in the matters of food, clothing, housing and
hygiene, much more refined and much more difficult to satisfy.
No doubt the soil can be cleaned of stones and weeds, its
fertility can be restored and even increased ; but this requires
technical knowledge and considerable financial means, and
the first Jewish colonists had neither. What happened was
that when they had paid the purchase price for their land,

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when they had built their primitive cottages, when seeds and
tools had been purchased, the colonists found that they had
spent most of their funds before they had even gathered in
their first meagre crop. And when the first crop, and the
second, turned out to be utterly insufficient to furnish a living
for the colonists and their families, the conviction dawned upon
them that there must be something wrong in their work, and
that a radical change of method was indispensable. But the
available funds had been spent, and from without no adequate
help was to be expected. In Russia the Choveve-Zion move-
ment was still in its infancy, and commanded but small financial
means ; whilst western Jewry, which had not yet been stirred
by the call of Theodor Herzl, was ignorant of the very existence
of the handful of pioneers who were struggling against over-
whelming odds in their attempts to initiate the self-emancipa-
tion of the Jewish people in its historic home.

It was at this critical moment, in 1884, that Baron Edmond
de Rothschild intervened. Having learnt by chance of the
difficulties with which the young Jewish colonies were strug-
gling, he sent a representative to Palestine with instructions to
enquire into the causes of these difficulties and to determine
the means to be employed for their removal. As a result of
these enquiries, Baron Rothschild decided to take under his
protection the four colonies whose situation was most em-
barrassing. His experts had rightly concluded that the
exclusive cultivation of cereals neither provided sufficient
income for the immediate sustenance of the colonists and
their families, nor offered any favourable prospects for the
future, and that it was necessary therefore to devote at least a
part of the land to the cultivation of fruit trees. Accordingly,
by order of the Baron large vineyards were planted with the
best varieties of French vines, and at Rishon-le-Zion large
wine-cellars were built with a total capacity of 1,650,000
gallons.

Between 1884 and 1888 he founded the new colonies of
Ekron, Sheveya, and Bath-Shlomoh, and between 1889 and
1899 he bought many large sites in Lower Galilee and in
Samaria, and 29,000 acres near El-Muzerib in Trans jordania.

At the same time other colonies were established : Rechoboth
(1890) and Chederah (1891), by Russian colonising societies;
Mozah (1891), four miles from Jerusalem, by Jews from that
city ; Castinieh (1895) by the Russian Society of " Lovers of
Zion " ; Metitla (1896), at the foot of Mount Hermon, by
Rothschild ; Artuf (1896) by a Bulgarian Society.

The example of these colonies, where the creation of vine-
yards had given work to a large number of settlers and labourers,
induced other colonies to plant vines on a big scale, and to
neglect almost completely the cultivation of any other crop.

Monoculture, the exclusive cultivation of one plant, involves
considerable risks even under normal conditions ; in times
of stress it generally proves fatal to those who have made it
the basis of their economic life. Whilst the Jewish colonics
were multiplying their vineyards, the price of wine on the
European markets had begun to fall ; and by the time that
the Palestinian vineyards were reaching their full productivity,
the price of wine had fallen so low that the piece of land pos-
sessed by each settler no longer yielded a nett profit sufficient
to supply the needs of his family. In order to save the colonists
from destitution, the Baron's administration, at very con-
siderable sacrifice, went on taking over the wine at an artificial
price high enough to allow the colonists to live. But, in
consequence of the increasing yield of the vineyards, the
deficit resulting from the difference between the price at which
the administration bought wine from the colonists and the
price at which it sold the same wine on the European markets
soon became so enormous that the Baron was forced to admit
that it would be impossible for him to continue the system
indefinitely. He realised that radical reforms were needed,
and that they could not lead to good results save through
an organisation specially prepared for colonising work.
He approached the Jewish Colonisation Association (the
" J.C.A."), and concluded with it an agreement whereby the
J.C.A. undertook to reorganise his Palestinian colonies.

In order to mitigate the manifold drawbacks and dangers
of monoculture, the J.C.A. bought good arable land, specially
adapted for the cultivation of cereals and other annual plants,
in the immediate neighbourhood of the vine colonies, and
divided this land among the colonists. At the same time,
352 vine planters were grouped into a syndicate known as
the w' Co-operative Society of the Great Cellars of Rishon-le-
Zion and Zichron- Jacob." This syndicate took over the
cellars, the existing wine and the claims, and was granted
sufficient working capital to manage the whole business.
A special company for the sale of the wine was formed under
the name of " Carmel," with agencies in many countries ; the
Palestine Wine and Trading Company, of London, is affiliated
to it. Measures were taken without delay for reducing pro-
duction, so as to keep it always proportionate to sale ; and
in four years the production was reduced from 1,-130,000
gallons to 528,000 gallons, that is to say, by about two-thirds.
This result was obtained by uprooting hundreds of acres of
vineyards and planting olives, almonds and oranges in their
place. The sacrifice was heavy, but it met with its reward,
and to-day wine-growing and the wine-trade arc established
on a sound basis and are one of the main sources of wealth
in the country.

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Between 1899 and 1908 the J.C.A. founded the new colonies
of Sedjera (1899), Meslia (1902), Melhamieh (1902), Yemma
(1902), Bedjen (1905), Atlit (1907), Kinnereth (1908), and
Mizpah (1908).

In all these colonies the J.C.A., by a wisely conceived ad-
ministration, which aimed at making the conduct of affairs
pass gradually into the hands of the colonists themselves,
strove to awaken the spirit of initiative among the settlers and
to develop their best energies. But, although the J.C.A. suc-
ceeded to a great extent in these educational efforts, the
atmosphere of bureaucratic philanthropy in which its work
and that of the Baron had necessarily been carried on had
deeply affected the morale of the colonists. Their own help-
lessness in face of threatening disaster and their entire de-
pendence on help from without had destroyed their confidence
in themselves and weakened their will and their power to pull
through in bad times. The necessity of remaining at all costs
on good terms with the agents through whom financial help
was doled out produced an unhealthy atmosphere of servile
obedience on the one side and of a somewhat autocratic
favouritism on the other. Under the influence of the short
period of relative prosperity through which they had passed —
a prosperity not earned by their own efforts — the lofty idealism
that had bid the colonists emigrate to Palestine fifteen or twenty
years before had largely vanished and given place to more
materialistic tendencies ; their whole outlook had undergone a
considerable change, and instead of bringing up their children
on the land, and in such a way as to make them Palestinian
farmers, many had begun to send them to the numerous schools
which the Alliance, the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden and the
Anglo-Jewish Association were creating in the towns, and
where an education given in French, German, or English was
preparing the young generation for future emigration to
European or American countries. In short, whilst the imme-
diate material situation of the colonists had been greatly
improved, the future of the national settlement was being
gravely imperilled : on the one hand by the tendency to
emigrate, which was fast spreading among the young ; on the
other hand, and in a much more dangerous manner, by the
changes which had taken place in the character, in the tempera-
ment and in the general spirit of the colonists. The outlook was
dark indeed, when the Zionist Organisation appeared on the
scene.

This Organisation, founded in 1897 by Theodor Herzl, estab-
lished in 1908 the farm of Kinnereth on the shores of Lake
Tiberias. In 1909 the planting of a great forest of olive-trees on
lands bought by the Jewish National Fund, at Hulda, was
undertaken, and during the same year the colony of Daganiah

was founded at the point where the Jordan flows out of Lake
Tiberias. In 1910 a company of Zionist capitalists of Moscow
bought a large site at Medjdel (the ancient Magdala), on th~
western shore of Lake Tiberias, in order to attempt the culti-
vation of cotton and lucerne ; at Ben-Shamen the Jewish
National Fund began to plant another forest of olive-trees,
while the Russian Society of the " Lovers of Zion " founded
the little labourers' settlement of Ain-Ganim near the great
colony of Petach-Tikwah ; and during the same year, 1910,
the Palestine Land Development Company, Ltd., founded with
the support of the Jewish National Fund, began its operations
of purchase and allotment of lands for re-sale to private indi-
viduals. In 1911 was established the colony of Merchavyah, on
the estates of which a society, specially constituted with this
object, started an interesting experiment in co-operative
colonisation by labourers. In 1912 the Palestine Land De-
velopment Company and the Jewish Colonisation Association
entered into an agreement under which they have jointly made
several important purchases of land, which have not yet had
time to be settled. And while all these new settlements were
being formed, most of the old colonies were enlarged by fresh
acquisitions of territory in their immediate neighbour-
hood.

The Zionist Organisation is responsible for the appearance
of two factors of considerable bearing on the economic develop-
ment of Palestine : first, the creation of the Jewish bank, the
Anglo-Palestine Company, Ltd. ; and, secondly, the beginning
of the movement for repatriating in Palestine the Yemenite
Jews of Southern Arabia.

A few years after the foundation of the Anglo-Palestine
Company the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organisation was
opened at Jaffa. Originally this office was intended to act
merely as the agent of the Zionist Executive for the supervision
of the organisation's colonisation work in Palestine. In
practice, however, the Palestine Office was led to assume re-
sponsibility for many different activities, some of which in
other countries are fulfilled by the Government. The Palestine
Office, indeed, soon acquired great prestige both with the
colonists and with the Ottoman Government. The colonists
became accustomed to invoke "its intervention whenever they
had an important matter to settle with the local or the central
government authorities ; and as a result of the repeated inter-
vention of the Palestine Office on behalf of the colonists the
authorities on their side have come to consider the head of the
Office as the de facto representative of the Jewish population of
the country. Considering that the whole inner administration
of the Jewish colonies and the relations of the colonies with each
other are conducted on the lines of the most complete local

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autonomy, it is easy to understand the great importance of the
political role which the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organisa-
tion has come to play. The question whether the Zionist
Organisation represents the Jewish masses at large exists to-day
only in the countries of the Galuth ; in Palestine this question
has long since been settled, the official representatives of the
Zionist Organisation having become, by tacit consent of the
Jews and of the Government, the " porte-parole," or spokesmen,
of Palestinian Jewry as a whole.

The Palestine Office supervises also the colonising activity
of the Jewish National Fund and the Palestine Land Develop-
ment Company. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the many-sided
activities of these two institutions. From the purely technical
point of view some part of their work calls for criticism ; but
from the national point of view they have rendered invaluable
services. The farms and plantations which they have created
in Judaea, in Samaria and in Galilee have become centres of the
revival, where the most ardent nationalist spirit is fostered.
That spirit has communicated itself to the younger generation in
the surrounding colonies, and from the children it has passed
on to their parents, with the result that within a few years
the whole atmosphere of the old colonies has undergone a
fundamental change. The flame of national enthusiasm
has been revived, scepticism has given place to hope and
confidence in the future ; the colonists have realised that they
are no more the sad survivors of a premature and unhappy
colonising experiment, but that they have become the pioneers,
the vanguard of a Avorld movement which has waited for its
time, but which is now on the way, slowly but surely and
irresistibly, to Zion. The consciousness that all the hopes
of this world movement centre around that first nucleus of
national life represented by our colonies in Palestine has
penetrated the colonists with a deep sense of responsibility, and
has restored to them the confidence in themselves which they
had lost under the well-meant tutelage of their philanthropic
protectors. It would take us too far to depict in detail how
deep this change has gone and what important practical
consequences it has already begotten • it is only necessary to
mention the splendid revival of the Hebrew language in
Palestine and the strong attitude which the colonists took up
and the pecuniary sacrifices that they made in defence of
Hebrew when, a few years ago, the German Aid Society for
Jews (Hilfsverein) attempted to interfere with the normal
course of the hebraisation of our schools. As to the staying
qualities of the colonists, their power to resist difficulties,
their will and determination to cleave to the land of our
fathers at any price, these are qualities which are to-day
beyond dispute. If proof were required, no argument could

be more eloquent than the fact that when Turkey entered
the Avar in October, 1914, and the Turkish authorities gave
the Jews belonging to enemy nations the option of becoming
Ottoman subjects or leaving the country, many Jewish in-
habitants of the towns and agricultural labourers left the
country, but not one colonist.

The spirit of which such facts are but isolated expressions
has not remained confined to the colonists and workmen,
but has pervaded all classes of Palestinian Jewry ; and its
intensity is such that willingly or unwillingly the non-Zionist
institutions in the country, if they wanted their work to be
successful, have had to adapt themselves to the spirit of the
times. Not only in their methods of work, but in the very
spirit in which their institutions are conducted, they have had
to conform to the new demands. Many illustrations of this
evolution might be given. The most remarkable, perhaps,
is that furnished by the Agricultural School of the Alliance
Israelite at Mikveh Israel. The writer still remembers how, in
1911, the language of instruction there was French, while as
to the general tendency of the school the then director (who,
by-the-by, was not an agriculturist) said himself : ' The
object of our school is to give the boys a practical education
which will enable them to find a living in North. America or
in the Argentine." In 1914, a few months before the outbreak
of war, and shortly after Baron Rothschild's visit to Palestine,
a new director was appointed in the person of a well-known
Palestinian Zionist, who is also a capable scientifically trained
agriculturist, and he undertook without delay the systematic
hebraisation of the school. Those who knew the previous
attitude of the Alliance Israelite in these matters will be able
to appreciate at its full value the importance of the change
that has taken place in the moral condition of our Palestinian
colonisation.

At the same time we have a most interesting phenomenon
to note : whereas the essentially philanthropic system of
colonisation practised by Baron Edmund de Rothschild and
the J.C.A. had only brought to Palestine immigrants who
possessed little or no means, the expansion of the Zionist
movement led to the influx into Palestine of a large number
of middle-class Jews from all parts of the world, resolved to
find in the country an outlet for their energies and for the small
or moderate capital which they brought with them. It may
readily be imagined how powerful a factor for progress, in a
country not yet industrially or commercially developed, was
the arrival of such a population, determined to settle and
support itself there at all costs and at its own risk.

The above brief historical sketch will show that the Jewish
colonisation of Palestine is not the realisation of any plan

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or system decided upon beforehand and uniformly applied
everywhere ; on the contrary, what the Jews have so far
created in Palestine represents the result of a host of inde-
pendent efforts, inspired by different and sometimes con-
tradictory tendencies. Yet experience and local conditions
have succeeded in introducing into these efforts a certain
order and uniformity, thus leading to an intelligent collabora-
tion, conscious of the identity of the aim in view. What
have been the results of these multifarious efforts ? What
has been the influence of the Jews on the development of
Palestine during the last few decades ? WThat part do they
play to-day in the economic activity of the country ?

In order to appreciate at its right value the work which
the Jews have done in Palestine, it is necessary to bear in
mind that the new Jewish settlement in that country offers
certain peculiar features which make it difficult, if not im-
possible, for the student to classify it under any of the hitherto
known and described types of colonisation. A people of
shepherds and farmers driven from its home and scattered
throughout the world, deprived by laws or by circumstances
of the possibility of acquiring land and of following agricultural
pursuits, has been forced, in order to preserve itself, to turn
to commerce and to become a people of traders and of middle-
men. Habit is second nature, especially with Semites, whose
power of adaptation to varying external conditions probably
exceeds that of any other race ; and eighteen centuries of
remoteness from the land have wrought deep-seated changes
in the psychology of the Jewish people. The Jew has become
estranged from the soil and from all that relates to it. Not
only has he lost the simple tastes and ideals of the husband-
man, but the equability of mind and the conservatism of the
agriculturist — a conservatism which is valuable so long as it
is moderate — have given place in the Jew to a restiveness,
an impulsiveness, a certain spirit of speculation and adventure,
which are incompatible with successful agricultural work.
Here lie the deeper reasons of the failure of the various colonising
experiments that have been made with Jews in the Argentine,
in Brazil, and in the United States of America.

It is therefore especially interesting to note that not only
has the Jewish colonising activity in Palestine proved a success,
but that in that country it is' precisely in agriculture more
than in any other field of activity that the Jews have shown
themselves important factors of progress. In order to convince
oneself of this it is enough to compare the Arab plantations
with those of the Jews. In a country where fodder, and,
in consequence, cattle and manure, are scanty, the Arabs
for centuries have practised a system of tillage which has
seriously impoverished the soil ; moreover, the yield of their

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crops is very meagre. Thanks to a wise use of chemical
manure and the cultivation of green manures, destined to
restore to the land the fertilising elements of which the crops
have robbed it, the Jews have succeeded in increasing the
productive qualities of the soil to a marked degree ; while, at
the same time, the employment of adequate machinery
has made possible modern methods of cultivation, and has
enabled them to raise the produce of various crops to quite
remarkable proportions. They have not yet achieved equal
successes in all branches of agricultural work ; the reason
is that they have not yet had sufficient practice in certain
of them. But in those agricultural undertakings in which
they have had at least ten or fifteen years' practice, they
have shown themselves equal to the most progressive farmers
of advanced agricultural countries. The value of their work
can best be judged by comparing the yields of their crops with
the yields of the crops of the surrounding Arab inhabitants.
With the Arabs the cereals (wheat and barley) yield an average
gross produce [of about £l pe* acre; in the better Jewish
colonies, the fields yield up to £2 and £3 and more. In Arab
orange-groves 350 cases of oranges per acre are considered
a very good average crop ; Jewish orange-groves, as a rule,
yield about 40 to 50 per cent, more, and in the last year before
the war a yield of no less than 757 cases — that is, more than
double the Arab yield — was obtained. Arab vineyards do
not yield, as a rule, more than £6 to £7 value of gross produce
per acre ; the Jewish vine-planters obtain an average of £12
to £13. The milch cows of the fellaheen give an average of
130 to 160 gallons of milk per annum ; those of the Jewish
colonies at Benshemen, Ekron, and Artuf give about 440
gallons and more. These figures are an eloquent testimony to the
skill of the Jewish colonist. No doubt success or failure of
the crops is in close dependence on external conditions —
such as the soil, the climate, the water supply. But these
conditions are the same for the Arabs as for the Jews. We
must, therefore, look to other factors for the explanation of
the higher yields obtained by the Jewish colonists ; and we
may safely conclude that these factors must be sought in the
character of the Jews themselves. Personally, the writer
does not hesitate to ascribe the good results obtained to three
qualities which are developed to a high degree in most of the
colonists, namely, their manual skill, their businesslike methods,
and their progressive (one might even say their scientific)
spirit. As a proof of the superior manual skill of the Jewish
agricultural labourers, it may be mentioned that, in the course
of the last few years, Arab landowners have repeatedly
entrusted Jewish labourers with the creation of new plantations,
and especially with the execution of such delicate work as

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the pruning and grafting of their fruit-trees. Of the business-
like methods of the settlers no better proof is required than
the fact that on the one hand the importation of chemical
fertilisers, of wood for packing-cases, of paper for wrapping
oranges and lemons, and of various other kinds of raw materials,
and on the other hand the exportation of all the important
agricultural products (wine, oranges, almonds) are carried
on by the colonists themselves by means of co-operative societies
specially created for the purpose and represented on the chief
European markets by their own agents chosen from amongst
the members. But most of the success of the colonists is due
probably to their typically Jewish perspicacity, which enables
them to grasp at once the cardinal points of a problem, and to
their progressive spirit, which impels them not to content
themselves with half-measures, but to go straight for such
methods as will promise them a radical solution of the particular
difficulty with Avhich they are confronted.

Practical illustrations of this progressive and scientific
spirit are met with in Palestine at every step. In place of
the primitive Arab chain-pumps, which are set in motion by
a camel or a mule that walks round and round with its eyes
blindfolded, the Jews have introduced modern pumps, worked
by oil or gas motors, for the irrigation of their orange and
lemon groves, and on the banks of the River Audja, not far
from the colony of Petach-Tikwah, a Jewish company, in
1913, instituted great waterworks, which, on payment of a
certain tax per dunam (the Arab unit of land-measurement),
furnish the surrounding planters with the water necessary to
irrigate their soil.

In order to remove the stagnant pools which breed fevers,
the Jews in various places have planted clusters, great and
small, of eucalyptus trees, which have done much to make
the country more salubrious, and at the same time supply
timber that may be turned to divers uses.

The struggle against the foes and parasites of their crops
has received constant attention from the Jewish settlers,
and in this struggle they are assisted by the various scientific
institutions of the country. The Jewish Health Bureau of
Jerusalem supplies them with the microbe cultures necessary
for the destruction of the rats which ravage the cereal crops ;
and the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station at Zichron-
Jacob, as well as the technical staff of the Zionist Organisation's
Palestine Office, furnishes inquirers with all instructions as
to the means of combating the insects that do damage to
fruit-trees.

In order ,to encourage cattle-breeding, the Jewish bank,
the Anglo-Palestine Company, grants credits for the purchase
of dairy cattle on the joint guarantee of a certain number of

13

settlers ; while the Jewish National Fund, on its farm oi
Ben-Shamen, gives demonstrations in dairy-work and in the
cultivation of fodder. A model poultry-farm has also been
established at Ben-Shamen. to instruct the colonists in the
best methods of rearing- poultry.

The question of theoretical and practical instruction in
agriculture, both for children and for the settlers themselves,
has always received attention from the various Jewish organisa-
tions in Palestine. The agricultural school of Mikweh-Israel
is engaged in the technical preparation cf young people ;
the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organisation publishes a
monthly agricultural journal, and keeps a travelling lecturer,
who goes round the various colonies giving lectures and practical
demonstrations ; the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station
has instituted holiday lectures for teachers in the colony-schools.
In 1912 the colonists, partly subsidised by the J.C.A., sent a
delegate, a graduate of a horticultural school, to the United
States in order to study the best agricultural methods practised
in California. Texas, and Florida. In 1914 there was founded
at Mikweh-Israel the Palestinian Agricultural Society, which
includes among its members a fair number of agronomists,
aoTiculturists. and horticulturists who are graduates of various
European colleges, and also the best practical farmers of the
country. The object of this society is to improve agriculture
and kindred industries.

But* the most important event for Palestinian agriculture
has undoubtedly been the creation of the Jewish Agricultural
Experiment Station, founded and maintained by the muni-
ficence of a group of American Jews, with the main object of
introducing and improving the cultivation of varieties of
cereals and other plants which are not very exacting and
have an ample power of resisting bad weather, disease, and
various parasites. The offices and the laboratories of the
station are situated in the colonv of Zichron- Jacob ; its fields
for experiments and demonstration are at Atlit, on an estate
of 112 acres given by the Jewish National Fund. The Jewish
Agricultural Experiment Station commenced its labours in
the summer of 1910. Among the results of its still brief
career we quote below a few, which will illustrate the great
significance of this institution for the economic development
of Palestine and for the study of its agrolooical conditions.

The Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station has succeeded in isolat-
ing, and is in the act of fixing, a new form of sesame, the yield of which .
other things being equal, is more than double that of sesame ordinarily
grown in the country. It has also created five species of wheat and
barley, which show an amazing power of resistance to the sirocco,
and some species of wheat, peculiarly rich in gluten and accordingly
lending themselves specially to the manufacture of macaroni.

Every year, from the end of July to the end of October, Egypt
imports about £80,000 worth of table grapes, which come exclusively

14

from Smyrna and Cyprus. The Experiment Station has succeeded in
acclimatising in Palestine a variety of table grape ripening three weeks
earlier than the precocious varieties of the region, and accordingly
capable of appearing three weeks earlier on the Egyptian market.

The Experiment Station has supplied valuable information as to
the best varieties of olives for planting purposes, showing, by means
of numerous analyses made in its laboratories, that the olives of Pales-
tine, especially those of Galilee, are superior to foreign olives, both in
the average weight of the fruit and in quantity of oil.

The Experiment Station has undertaken the cultivation and improve-
ment of various species of indigenous spineless cactus, which may
supply valuable fodder for cattle. It has also discovered a new method
of growing the mulberry-tree, thanks to which this tree is in leaf three
weeks before the normal time — a phenomenon of great importance for
the rearing of silkworms and for the feeding of cattle.

The Experiment Station cultivates more than forty varieties of
plants designed to keep the dunes from shifting (this shifting constitutes
one of the main obstacles to agriculture along the Mediterranean coast),
and rapidly to provide efficient shelter against the salty winds from
the sea. It has also introduced more than forty species of eucalyptus,
several of which are specially adapted to the chalky soils which form
the greater part of the cultivable land of the country.

As regards geology, the Experiment Station has brought together
the most complete collection which exists for Palestine. Its investiga-
tions into the tertiary strata have altered the geological map of Pales-
tine, and have profoundly modified previous theories as to the structure
of the soil.

The collection of fresh- water molluscs is one of the richest in the
world. The cryptogamic and phanerogamic herbaria each contains
nearly 30,000 species ; the latter, in particular, contains a fairly large
number of hitherto unknown plants.

While so much attention has been paid to the development
of the technical side of agriculture, the colonists have not
neglected the business organisation of the sale of their pro-
ducts. We have already mentioned that they have formed
great co-operative societies for the export and sale of the
products of their plantations.

No argument can show in more striking fashion the economic
importance of the Jewish agricultural colonisation of Palestine
than the following statistics :

(a) Thirty per cent, of all the oranges and 90 per cent, of the wines
which leave Palestine by the port of Jaffa are supplied by the neigh-
bouring Jewish colonies, and oranges and wine by themselves represent
nearly half the value of the total exports from Jaffa. On the other
hand, most of the Jewish plantations are still in their infancy, and will
not become fully productive for some years.

(b) In 1890 an acre of irrigable land in the colony of Petach-Tikwah
cost about £3 12s. ; to-day such land would not cost less than £36 per acre.

(c) About 1880 the lands which form this same colony were unculti-
vated, and only brought in a few pounds in revenue to the State ; in
1912 the value of the annual production in the colony was £36,000,
and the Government drew a revenue of £3,400 from part of the land
(since a great deal is not yet cultivated, or has been planted quite re-
cently and does not yet yield any produce).

(d) In 1880 the value of the colony was less than £1,200 ; to-day
it represents a value of at least £600,000, and its population numbers
3,000 souls.

15

Industry in Palestine can as yet show but a rudimentary
development. The main cause of this is the inland duties,
which until 3 910 were levied on goods conveyed from one
province to another. If we remember that these inland
duties once rose as high as S per cent., and, on the other hand,
that the only duty on imported goods is one of 11 per cent.,
we can realise that conditions have been very unfavourable
to the creation of new industries in the country or for the
improvement of those already existing. Nevertheless, the
Jews have instituted several mechanical workshops of some
importance in Palestine ; they have established some modern
oilworks. which, by improved chemical processes, succeed
in extracting as much as 10 per cent, of oil from the residues
left by the primitive Arab oilworks. The production of wine
and brandy is one of the most important branches of their
activity ; and for the requirements of their great wine-cellars
they have created the coopering industry in Palestine. They
have commenced, on a small scale, the distilling of essential
oils — in particular, essence of geranium and thyme. The
Jews do more architectural work than any other section of the
inhabitants ; a large number of them are engaged in the
building industry, and, in particular, the manufacture of
cement-stones is almost entirely in their hands.

But it is in efforts for the creation and extension of home
industries that the Jews have shown their greatest activity.
In their school of arts and crafts known as ; Bezalel," they
have instructed 500 pupils in the weaving of Oriental carpets.
in the inlaying of copper with silver — an art much admired
in the East, in the manufacture of silver filigree ware, in
ivory-carving, &c. In their mother-of-pearl workshop they
teach the manufacture of buttons and of various devotional
objects. At Jerusalem they have established a professional
school comprising workshops for carpentry, machinery, iron-
smelting, and weaving, as well as a smithy and a dye-shop.
Among the poor families of the same town they have distributed
a large number of knitting-machines, the cost of which is repay-
able by small annual instalments. In all the important towns
schools for o-irls and women have been founded to instruct
them in the manufacture of a special kind of Oriental lace.

The foreign trade of Jaffa amounts to nearly 40 per cent,
of the entire trade of Palestine. This trade, which in 1904
was valued at £760,000, had in 1912 already reached the
figure of £2,080,000,* the imports being markedly superior to
the exports. If we merely take the oranges and wines exported
by the Jewish settlements, we shall find that they alone repre
sent nearly 25 per cent, of the total exports from Jaffa. If,
again, we remember that the greater part of the imports is received

* C. Nawratzki: '"Die Judische Kolonisation Palastinas."

16

by Jewish firms, we can form a fair idea of the important part
played by the Jewish population in the trade of Palestine.

This importance is strikingly apparent in the part played
throughout the country by the Anglo-Palestine Company.

Founded in 1903, this bank began its operations in Palestine the
same year. The original capital was £39,000 ; it has been raised to
£100,000. The Anglo-Palestine Company has its head office in Jaffa,
with branches at Jerusalem, Haifa, Hebron, Beyrout, Safed, Tiberias,
and Gaza, and agencies in the principal Jewish colonies.

Starting from the principle that the credit which may be allowed to
a borrower is not always determined by the object which serves as the
basis of credit, but often — and this is particularly the case in the East—
by the debt-collecting ability which the lender can show when payment
falls due, the Anglo-Palestine Company has succeeded in organising in
Palestine a modern system of credit. It has introduced short-term credits
against the deposit, as security, of goods or bills of exchange. In order
to facilitate the granting of credit to farmers, labourers, and small
tradesmen, the Bank has instigated the formation of co-operative credit
societies, based on the joint guarantee of the members. At the end of
1913 there existed fifty-two of these co-operative societies, containing
2,289 members in all, and possessing at the Anglo-Palestine Bank
security deposits amounting to upwards of £4,000.

To replace the system of credit on mortgage, which practically does
not exist in Turkey, the Anglo-Palestine Company grants long-term
credits, the redemption of which is guaranteed by the crop where
plantations are concerned, or by rent where houses are in question.

The deposits received by the Bank are very considerable, and their
importance is rapidly increasing. This is the best proof of the great
confidence with the Anglo-Palestine Company enjoys, in spite of the fact
that the 4 per cent, interest which it pays for these deposits is com-
paratively small for Eastern conditions. The business transacted shows
a slow but steady advance, although for the last few years, owing to
various political complications, the general economic situation has not
been very favourable. In 1910 the turnover was £5,840,000, and since
then the figures have become even larger.

From what was said at the outset of these remarks on the
trade of Palestine it will be seen that the extraordinary eco-
nomic progress of Jaffa corresponds almost exact]}- with the
period when the Jews began to interest themselves more
actively in Palestinian economy, and, above all, when the
Zionist Organisation, by founding the Anglo-Palestine Com-
pany, began its operations in the country. It would be too
much to say that the credit for this great economic progress
belongs exclusively to the Jews, but it is probable that they
have been the most important factor. An impartial eye-
witness, the British Vice-Consul, in his report of 1900, says :

' There can be no doubt that the establishment of the Jewish
colonies in Palestine has brought about a great change in the
aspect of the country, and an example has been set before the
native rural population of the manner in which agricultural
operations are conducted on modern and scientific principles."
Again, in his report of 1904. the Acting Vice-Consul records :

' There has been a marked increase in the population of

17

Jaffa, specially in the Jewish element, which is spreading all
over Palestine, and which represents to-day the most enter-
prising part of the population."

It is a very significant fact that the immigration of the
Jews into Palestine, with the sole exception of that of the
Yemenites, represents an entirely spontaneous movement.
Their return to the land of their ancestors is not incited by
any propaganda ; no one pays their travelling expenses. It
is on their own initiative and at their own expense and risk
that the Jews return to Zion ; nor do the various Jewish
organisations begin to interest themselves in them until they
have set foot on Palestinian soil. Thus the field of activity
for these organisations is strictly confined to Palestine itself,
no share of their attention or of their financial means being
distracted by outside work. On the other hand, by a sort
of tacit agreement, each of the organisations has set apart
for itself a certain group of activities in which it has specialised,
and in the execution of which it has reached a high degree
of perfection. It is thanks to this limitation and division
of labour that, while disposing only of modest financial resources,
the Jews have been able to render substantial aid both to
rural and to urban colonisation.

Let us examine, in the first place, what has been done for
rural colonisation.

The soil of Palestine, for the most part, either belongs to
big landowners or is the joint property of village communities ;
it is therefore difficult to purchase such small lots as single
families need. Moreover, the formalities for buying and
selling land are somewhat complicated. In order* to meet
these drawbacks and to facilitate the purchase of small hold-
ings by private individuals, the Zionist Organisation has
formed a special instrument, the Palestine Land Development
Company, Limited. This society purchases on its own account
large sites, which it improves, makes healthy, and divides
into lots to be resold to private persons. It undertakes similar
operations on behalf of the individuals themselves ; it take>
upon itself the management of the holdings whose owners
live abroad ; it is also charged with administering the domains
belonging to the Jewish National Fund.

As regards the immigrants or inhabitants who wish to
devote themselves to agriculture, but, though not entirely
devoid of means, do not possess sufficient capital for sotting
up a farm, two cases may arise :

(a) If they have some knowledge of agriculture, and can prove that
they possess a capital of about £200, the Jewish Colonisation Association
offers to sell them suitable holdings of 250 dimams (about 50 acres) each,
and, if they so desire, builds them a dwelling-house and stalls for the
cattle, the whole outlay being repayable in forty years by small annual
instalments.

(6) If their means are very limited, the Odessa Committee* places at

18

their disposal, in one of the labourers' colonies which it has founded in
the immediate neighbourhood of the great agricultural centres, small
holdings for which repayment can be made in a certain number of years.
Such a holding comprises, besides a cottage large enough to house a
family, 10 dunams (about 2.^ acres) of irrigable land. The produce of
this holding assures the holder a certain income, but the cultivation
allows him spare time in which either he or his wife or children can work
as labourers in the big neighbouring colony.

Finally, colonists already settled who need money, either
for continuing their labours or for enlarging their holdings,
can obtain loans from the Anglo-Palestine Company. But
the rate of interest which this Bank must levy for its loans
is a burden less easily borne by agriculture than by commerce :
and the formation of a special agrarian credit in Palestine-
would be a great boon for agriculture in general and would
give a powerful impetus to Jewish rural colonisation in
particular.

The question of manual labour in these rural colonies lias
also received close attention from the principal Jewish organisa-
tions. We have already mentioned the labourers' colonies
founded by the Odessa Committee. The colonisation society
' Esra ' contributes towards lightening the existence of the
Jewish agricultural labourer by building cheap and comfortable
homes for the families and " workmen's homes ' for the
bachelors. But, above all, the Jewish National Fund has
taken a most lively interest in this question. In various
colonies it has erected c homes ' and co-operative kitchens
for the bachelors, and cheap houses for the families ; it has
established farm-schools where the newly-arrived labourers
can take a course in practical farm-work ; it has also
encouraged and regulated the return to Palestine of a large
number of the Arabian Jews of Yemen.

For a long time the Jews of Arabia had led a happy and
prosperous life. But at the beginning of the nineteenth
century the Arabs began to be hostile to them, and in the
course of the last few generations persecutions of all kinds
have reduced their community, once large and wealthy, to a
tribe numbering some few tens of thousands. Realising the
value that this completely Arabised tribe, accustomed to
the climate and very modest in its requirements, might have
lor our colonising work, the Jewish National Fund sent
representatives to Yemen in order to preach and organise
the return of the Jews to Zion. The Yemenites responded
to the appeal with great enthusiasm Within the last ten
years six thousand of them have returned to Palestine, where
the Jewish National Fund settles them in the immediate
neighbourhood of the great Jewish agricultural centres, each

* This committee is to-day the official representative of the older colonising Association*

of various Russian towns.

19

family receiving a small house with a bit of good agricultural
soil. The whole family works in the settlement — the men
as labourers, the women likewise as labourers or as servants
in the colonists' houses, and even the children do light work
in the fields. Their various earnings, combined with their
income from the small bit of land, ensure a livelihood for the
Yemenite's family, and even allow him to save enough to
repay to the Jewish National Fund the net cost of his house
and "of his holding ; in fact, the instinct of proprietorship
is well developed among the Yemenite Jews, and a large
number of them are already owners of their little houses.
The Yemenite labourer is usually intelligent and skilful ;
his mind is very malleable and open to progressive ideas;
his physique, sorely tried by his miserable life in Yemen, is
visibly improving in Palestine. The Jewish National Fund,
by its efforts to settle the Yemenite Jews in Palestine, is
accomplishing a task of capital importance for the agricultural
development of the country.

We must also note the beneficent activities of the Union
of Jewish Women for Cultural Work in Palestine, which has
established at Kinnereth, near Lake Tiberias, on lands belonging
to the Jewish National Fund, a domestic agricultural school
where Jewish girls are taught to become good farmers' wives.

There are to-day altogether about 50 Jewish colonies with a
population of about 15,000 souls. They cover a total area of
110,000 acres, which represents nearly 2 per cent, of the entire
area of Palestine, but S to 14 per cent.' of its cultivated surface.*
The soil of Palestine is, in fact, very badly utilised ; only a.
very small part is under cultivation. Moreover, east of the
Jordan there are immense territories, almost uninhabited,
the soil of which is excellent arable land. These lands, thanks
to the Hedjaz railway which crosses them, possess very good
communications with Asia Minor, the Mediterranean, and the
Red Sea. This country, which to-day contains merely a few
hundred thousand inhabitants, supported ten times that
number during the first centuries of the Christian era, and
was then considered a granary of the Roman Empire. It
only needs an industrious and intelligent population in order
to recover its pristine fertility, and to regain its old economic
importance. The same observation applies to the southern
part of Western Palestine, and in a certain measure even to
the mountainous lands which constitute the central part
of the country. Everywhere there is still room for a dense
population. The present total population of Palestine is
nearly 700,000 souls ; this figure represents only 15 per cent,
(according to Reclus), or even 10 per cent, (according to
Colonel Conder), of the population which it supported in the

* 0 Nawratzki, op. cil.

20

days of its prosperity. Careful calculations based on a com-
parison between the density of population of Palestine and
that of other countries with similar natural economic con-
ditions, on the area of available agricultural lands, and on
an estimate of the total quantities of foodstuffs and raw mate-
rials which Palestine should be able to produce under good
management, authorise the conclusion that the country, if
skilfully administered, should be capable of supporting a
population of at least five to six million inhabitants. It
will be seen, then, that there is no ground for fearing that by
the increase of Jewish immigration we shall ever inconvenience
the Arab population ; on the contrary, 5,000 Arab labourers
arc to-day working in the colonies of Judaea alone ; and the
more our settlements grow in number and area, the greater
will be the number of Arab labourers who will be able to find
in them remunerative employment.

The development of the agricultural colonies depends to
a great extent upon the development of the towns in the
neighbourhood of which these colonies are situated, for it is
the towns which form the only possible market for numerous
agricultural products (milk, butter, cheese, eggs, vegetables,
certain fruits) which will not keep long, and must therefore
be quickly consumed ; while for products that will keep for
some time the coast towns are the indispensable centres of
export. Thus, urban colonisation has received from the
various Jewish organisations all the encouragement that they
were in a position to give.

The twofold economic role of the towns, as centres of con-
sumption and of export cannot be properly fulfilled unless
they have a population possessing, on the one hand, sufficient
refinement in its material needs and the financial means for
satisfying them ; and, on the other hand, enough capital for
carrying on trade. But such a population has certain require-
ments, and among the Jewish middle classes, with whom we
are dealing here, these requirements may be summed up
under two heads — a comfortable dwelling, and the opportunity
of giving their children a good education. Thus, the various
Jewish organisations have realised that, to facilitate the immi-
gration of middle-class people desirous of settling in the towns
of Palestine, they must direct all their efforts towards securing
these two desiderata. Thanks to the support of the Jewish
National Fund, which, through the Anglo-Palestine Company,
has consented to make them the necessary loans, societies have
been formed for the erection of modern quarters in the most
important towns. The first and largest of these quarters
was founded at Jaffa, and was called "Tel- Aviv " ; it presents
quite a European picture, and its broad, well-kept streets,
and its houses surrounded with little gardens, form a striking

21

contrast to the Arab portion of the town. " Tel- Aviv '
means "Hill of Spring''; the whole quarter breathes a
spirit of health, order, and joy. A Jewish loeal adminis-
tration, entirely autonomous, has enabled the inhabitants to
obtain a measure of comfort and hygiene unimaginable in
Jaffa itself ; and even such details as the periodical inspection
of antiseptics, with which barbers are compelled to disinfect
their instruments, show the unceasing vigilance of an adminis-
tration that is solicitous for the welfare of its citizens.

The schools of Tel-Aviv are numerous and well-organised :
there are kindergartens and primary schools, a secondary
school for girls, a training school for female teachers, a grammar
school with 27 teachers and 600 pupils (400 boys, 200 girls),
and a school of music with 90 pupils ; in all these institutions,
without distinction, the language of instruction is Hebrew.
There is a public library, together with literary, scientific,
musical, and dramatic societies, and a gymnastic club.

Tel- Aviv is growing every day ; and similar urban quarters
provided with the same conveniences are being built in the
other large towns, in Jerusalem and Haifa. At Haifa, on
the slopes of Mount Carmel, a new quarter is being built round
the nucleus formed by the future Jewish Institute for Technical
Education in Palestine : while on the Mount of Olives, looking
westwards towards the place where once stood the Temple
of Solomon, and eastwards towards the Jordan, the Dead
Sea and the blue mountains of Moab, the Jewish National
Fund recently bought a site on which the Jewish University
of Jerusalem will be erected in the very near future.

Thus, the difficulty of giving the children a good education
— a consideration so important for members of the " people of
the Book " — has already ceased to be an obstacle to the immi-
gration cf well-to-do Jewish classes. The existing schools,
on the whole, meet even exacting requirements, and in point
of fact for some years past a growing number of A\rell-to-do
families has come to the towns of Palestine, to swell the valu-
able element of traders and consumers.

One of the most interesting points about Jewish life in
Palestine is the entire administrative autonomy of the colonies.
Each of them is administered by a " Waad," or Council, which
represents it in outside relations, and particularly before the
authorities of the Ottoman Government, and also directs all its
internal affairs. The Council is elected every year by the
General Assembly of the inhabitants, the right to vote being-
exercised by all, men or women, who possess holdings of
land registered in their own names in the books of the colony
as well as by all who, without being landowners, have been
living in the colony for at least two years and pay
taxes regularly. The Council registers owners of

99

real estate, as well as births, marriages, and deaths. It is
assisted in its labours by several committees. A Valuation
Committee helps it to distribute among the inhabitants,
according to the income and the family burdens of each, the
total amount of taxes to be paid to the Government, as well as
the internal taxes which are needed to supply the colony's
budget. An Education Committee directs the working of the
communal schools and of the kindergartens. A Committee of
Public Security organises and supervises the police service ; a
certain number of colonies, by annual contracts, entrust this
service to the force of Jewish watchmen known as " Hashomer."
An Arbitration Committee settles the disputes arising between
the colonists themselves, and often between the colonists and
their Arab neighbours ; for it is interesting to observe that the
reputation for ability and impartiality of the Jewish arbitrators
stands very high among their Arab neighbours. The Council
concerns itself with public hygiene, which comprises the main-
tenance of the doctor, the chemist, and in some cases of the
hospital nurse ; it administers the water supply, the public
baths, and the upkeep of the streets ; it controls the quality of
certain necessities of life, such as bread. Special committees
deal with questions of charity, etc.

Recognising the advantages of autonomous local administra-
tion, the Jews naturally take upon themselves and faithfully
carry out all the duties which this system involves. Neverthe-
less, among these duties there is more than one that more
properly belongs to the central government. Thus, if order
and security were better established in the country, the
colonies would not have to spend on their rural police service
the enormous sums which they devote to it at present. For
instance, in Rechoboth, a colony of 900 inhabitants, this service
alone costs £1,000 a year. Fortunately, for some of their
expenses, such as schools, doctor, chemist, and hospital nurse,
certain colonies receive subsidies from the various Jewish
organisations which have already been mentioned.

As in the case of the rural police service, the Government's
indifference towards sanitary conditions has compelled the
Jews themselves to take the necessary measures. In the
country the large uncultivated areas and the numerous marshy
localities ; in the towns the terrible distress of the poor, their
unwholesome food and unhealthy houses, and, above all, the
absence of suitable drinking-water — these are the factors which
play an essential part in the propagation of two great Pales-
tinian scourges, malaria and eye diseases. In order to fight
malaria in the settlements, the Jews have planted millions of
eucalyptuses, and these trees, through their great power of
absorption and evaporation, have brought health to many
places that were formerly marshy and uninhabitable. In the

23

towns the Jewish Health Bureau of Jerusalem, maintained by
the American philanthropist, Mr. Nathan Straus, and the
Society of Jewish Physicians and Naturalists, undertake the
struggle against malaria and eye disease ; and under the central
direction of this institution the local doctors in certain Jewish
colonies have undertaken a systematic war against trachoma.
Jewish hospitals exist in all the important towns (four at
Jerusalem, one at Jaffa, one at Haifa, one at Safed, one at
Hebron) ; at Jerusalem there are an ophthalmic hospital, a
large house of refuge for the aged, an institute for the blind, and
a lunatic asylum. In all colonies of any importance there are
a doctor and a chemist, and many of them possess an
infirmary.

But there is one domain in which the Jews, perhaps even
more than in the cases above-mentioned, have found themselves
compelled to carry out works of public utility which should
properly have been accomplished by the Government— that is,
the improvement of means of communication. In Palestine,
where, railways being scarce, much travelling is done by carriage
and goods are transported almost entirely by camel or by
waggon, roads form one of the vital nerves of the economic
organism of the country. Yet perhaps no question receives
so little attention from the Government as the construction
and maintenance of these precious means of communication.
Since the rapid agricultural development of the Jewish colonies
and of the lands which surround them has necessitated the
existence of a network of good roads to connect them with one
another and with the towns, the Jews have found themselves,
obliged to undertake the improvement of the existing highways
and the construction of new ones. Thus, they have improved
and still maintain the road from Jaffa to Tel -Aviv ; and at
their own expense they have built excellent new highways of
macadam, which in Judaea connect Rechoboth with Wad-el-
Chanin, Wad-el-Chanin with Rishon-le-Zion, Rishon-le-Zion
with the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and in Galilee Poriah
with Kinnereth, and Rosh-Pinah with the shore of Lake
Tiberias.

The general impression which emerges from the facts set
forth above seems to be that the Jews, in all their activities in
Palestine, have shown themselves to be conscientious and
skilful administrators. With limited means, and without any
support from the local government — nay, often in the face of
its frank ill-will — they have succeeded within a generation in
setting up a colonial organisation which for the country as a
whole is a most powerful leaven of progress. It is true that
they may have derived many valuable and instructive hints
from the experience of the great colonising nations of Europe,
and that the high average of intelligence and the progressive

24

spirit shown by the farmers and other Jewish immigrants have
notably lightened their task ; but the grand secret of their
success lies in their two-thousand-years-old longing for Zion,
in their passionate love for these plains and mountains which
saw the growth and flowering-time of their race, in that fierce
idealism which makes them cling to the soil of Palestine, ready
to fertilise it with their sweat, and to suffer the direst privations
and the cruellest martyrdoms rather than be forced to leave it
a second time.

Provided that the Jews are allowed to continue their labours
in peace, they will succeed in restoring to Palestine its old
prosperity, and even more. They have the necessary will and
aptitude ; they will find the necessary means. The general
economic situation is favourable, and presages a speedy revival
for the count ry ; but does the country possess in itself the
materials that are indispensable for this revival ? We affirm
that it does, and the proofs of this statement will form the
conclusion of the present study.

The legend goes that the soil of Palestine lacks natural
fertility, and that the water supply is not sufficient to make
intensive cultivation possible. The fact is that the soil of
Palestine, to-day as in ancient times, is remarkably fertile for
.one who takes the trouble to work it. Apart from a few un-
important exceptions, every foot of land can be utilised
for agriculture. Along the Mediterranean shore the plains
run side by side, each richer than the preceding one. First,
in the south, comes the plain of Gaza, where the barley for
brewing is better than at any other spot in the world ; then,
towards the middle part of the coast, round Jaffa, lies the
great plain of Sharon, with its soil of clay and chalk, covered
with orchards of orange-trees and almond-trees ; to the
north are the plain of Esdraelon, whose soil, of basaltic origin,
rich in humus, is famous as in days of old for its abundant
crops of sesame, and the plain of Beisan, famous for fields of
wheat. The limestone hills of Judaea and Samaria were covered
in biblical and Roman times with artificially raised terraces
of fertile earth maintained by low stone walls and irrigated
by means of the rain-water collected in natural pits or rock-
hewn cisterns ; thanks to these terraces, the whole of these
mountainous regions must have been one uninterrupted
stretch of orchards and gardens. Since then, through neglect
on the part of the inhabitants, the terraces have been allowed
to be destroyed, and the fertile soil of the hills has been washed
away. To-day only a very limited number of vineyards and
orchards of olive and fig trees exist in the mountains of Judaea.
But the restoration of the terraces, which we shall undertake,
will undoubtedly turn even these barren rocks once more
into " a land flowing with milk and honev." In the so-called

25

44 desert of Judaea," which is in fact a steppe and not a desert,
numerous flocks of sheep and goats find, even in the dry period
of summer, a natural pasturage that suffices for their needs.
The valley of the Jordan, a gigantic natural rift whose southern
portion lies 1,200 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea.
and which is protected by high mountains both on the east
and on the west, owes to these eircum stances a climate similar
to that of Nubia, and a very rich tropical flora. Finally,
beyond the Jordan, there stretch to the south the steppes of
Moab, well suited for the breeding of sheep on a large scale :
farther to the north the highlands of Gilead, with their forests
of oak and pine and numerous herds of cattle ; and still farther
to the north the great fertile tableland of Hauran. renowned
for its fields of wheat.

So much for the quality of the soil. As for the moisture
necessary for vegetation, the annual average rainfall (20 to 28
inches) is equal to that of Central Europe ; the difference is
that all this quantity of water falls within the space of six
months, there being no rain between April and October. But
this uneven distribution has been met since very ancient
times bv the construction of cisterns for storing' the water
from the winter rains ; and to-day. with modern appliances,
it would be possible to construct large dams for the same
purpose in all the mountainous parts of the country.

The six rivers of the Plain of Sharon, and the two of the
Plain of Esdraelon. carry water all the year in the lower part
of their courses, while the Jordan and its various tributaries,
and the Lake of Tiberias itself, would suffice for the irrigation
of all the great Vallev of the Ghoi\ which extends for 84 miles
from Lake Merom to the Dead Sea. In Galilee, in Gilead
and in Jaulan there are numberless little rivulets and springs
which could profitably be used for various agricultural pur-
poses. And in the whole coastal plain one needs only dig
to a depth of 10 to 80 feet in order to find aquiferous strata
which would furnish water for irrigation in quantities sufficient
to convert the whole of Philistia and Sharon, that is from
Gaza to Haifa, into one great irrigated garden. Finally, the
dew itself is so abundant during the summer nights that it
is equivalent to a light rain, and furnishes the vegetation with
enough moisture to ripen the summer crops, to supply the
needs of non-watered trees (olives, figs, almonds, vines), and
to maintain on the pastures of the '* desert of Judaea ' the
grass required by the numerous flocks of sheep and goats.

Thus to an impartial scientific examination Palestine reveals
itself as a country of great fertility, though this fertility is
often latent, and demands certain efforts before it can be
called into play. The great differences of height and of
climate in the different parts of the country make it possible

26

to cultivate side by side the products of the temperate and
of the torrid zones. It is the same with the rearing of domestic
animals, which is also susceptible of great development ;
the Arab thoroughbred, the mule, the caracul sheep of Tur-
kestan, and the ostrich might be bred with considerable profit.

In the sphere of industry the possibilities of development
are no less notable. The manufacture of oil and soap is supplied
with raw material by the plantations of olives, almonds, and
castor-oil plants, and by the cultivation of sesame, ground-
nuts, and cotton.

The extraction of essential oils and the manufacture of
perfumes wTill find abundant raw material in orange-peel and
lemon-peel, in the blossoms of geraniums, orange-trees, and
roses, as well as in those of the spiny acacias, used all over
Judaea for the construction of quickset hedges, and of the
wild thyme which abounds at the foot of the mountains of
Judaea.

The manufacture of wine, brandy, and raisins is dependent
on the cultivation of the vine, and is still susceptible of great
development.

Cereals furnish the raw material for milling, starch-making,
and the manufacture of macaroni ; milling in particular has
a future before it, as the country annually consumes £80,000
worth of foreign flour.

Every year Palestine imports, via Jaffa, nearly £80,000
worth of sugar. Now, in the whole coastal plain, and above
all in the Jordan Valley, the sugar-cane thrives excellently.,
while the Plain of Esdraelon and certain parts cf the coastal
plain possess very suitable soil for beetroot. Hence the sugar
industry seems to possess every chance of success ; it would
have the great advantage of giving valuable residues as food
for cattle (beetroot slices) or as manure (bagasse of cane).

The manufacture of preserves might profitably utilise the
olives and the numerous vegetables and fruits of the country ;
and when the fishing industry acquires the economic importance
which is its due in view of the great length of the coastline,
the possibility of obtaining fish and olive-oil simultaneously
and cheaply will involve the manufacture of fish preserves,
the residues of which (fish offal) form an excellent manure,
valuable for a country where dung is scanty.

In Palestine, where tobacco grows easily and is of good
quality, the cigarette industry should yield at least as good
results as in Egypt, where all the tobacco is imported.

Papyrus, which grows wild and in considerable quantities
throughout the Jordan Valley, but above all 'in its upper
portion, might well furnish the raw material for the manu-
facture of certain very fine kinds of paper.

Jaffa annually imports more than £240,000 worth of woollens,

27

and exports large quantities of sheep's and camel's wool.
Cannot the spinning- industry find in the country both its
raw material and a ready market ? Tanning might profitably
be developed. Palestine exports a large number of hides,
and imports leather. The country itself possesses good
tanning materials, such as Sumach, Shinia, and Acacia
mollissima which the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station
has introduced, and the bark of which is rich in tannin of
admirable quality.

To pass to a different sphere, the building industry, whose
importance grows from day to day in consequence of the
immigration of the Jews in particular, is certainly destined
to make great strides. Already the manufacture of cement
stone has acquired a certain importance. The cement which
is used is imported from abroad; and yet in Palestine, in
favourable spots, we find the material necessary for making
cement.

The utilisation of the mineral wealth of the country might
also form the basis of a large number of industrial enterprises.
The Dead Sea and the important beds of Hasbeya produce
asphalt of a superior quality. Throughout Transjordania,
and notably near Es-Salt, we find numerous beds of phosphate.
The water of the Dead Sea, which contains 24' 4G per cent, of
salts, and its deposits, are rich in potassium and bromides.
Petroleum probably exists at various points in the country.
In the region of Sidon there are strata of iron ore, red and
yellow ochre, and coal. Important deposits of chalk and
plaster exist in the mountains of Judsea and the Jordan Valley.
There is one more industry that certainly has a big future
before it — if indeed it can be called an industry — and that is
the tourist industry. Already the peculiar beauty of Palestine,
and its wealth in sanctuaries of every creed and in important
historical monuments, bring to the country between 15,000
and 18.000 visitors every year. But there are many other
tilings besides in Palestine which might attract the foreigner.
Along the coast, where the climate is similar to that of the
Riviera, several seaside resorts might with advantage be
established. The district round Jericho in winter, the shores
of Lake Tiberias in spring, the slopes of Carmel and Tabor in
summer, form excellent holiday resorts. In the Jordan Valley
and on the shores of Lake" Tiberias there are many hot
sulphurous springs which possess remarkable curative pro-
perties for rheumatic complaints, and are obvious starting-
points for the watering-places of the future. As for lovers of
the chase, they will find in Palestine varied and abundant
game, such as" foxes, gazelles, mountain goats, eagles, wild
duck, wild pigeons, partridges, teal, and many more. Tourists
who visit the East are generally wealthy ; so there can be

28

no doubt that a skilful organisation of the tourist industry,
such as has made the fortune of Switzerland and the Riviera!
may become for Palestine a potent source of prosperity.

Before leaving this subject of the industrial possibilities of
Palestine, we must say a few words as to the natural power
which manufacture and agriculture have at their disposal.
The Jordan, with its great differences of level over relatively
short distances, develops sufficient power to work enormous
turbines. Some of its tributaries, such as the Wadi-Fedjas,
which still shows numerous remains of ancient mills, and the
Yarmuk, which rushes down from the lofty Djolan tablelands
into the Jordan Valley, forming several" cataracts of great
height and considerable energy, might supply motive power
for a large number of factories ; the same is true of the rivers
of the coastal plain— the Audja, the Nahr-el-Zerka, and the
Nahr-el-Litani.

The winds are favourable for the installation of aeromotors ;
that of the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station works, on
an average, eight hours a day.

From the point of view of artificially generated motive
power, the fact that the most important part of the country for
economic purposes is a plain running parallel with the coast and
of a depth nowhere exceeding fifty miles is peculiarly favourable
to the establishment, in the immediate neighbourhood of the
ports, of large central power stations, which by suitable com-
munications would distribute motive power over the whole
country. These stations, worked by steam or motor engines,
would find their most certain customers in the innumerable
orchards and irrigated fields which a few years hence will
probably cover the coastal plain. As for the necessary fuel,
these stations, being situated along the coast, will be able to
procure it easily from abroad ; but they might also find it in
the lignite strata which exist in the country, or in the coarse and
otherwise useless straw of sesame, or in the timber of the
forests of eucalyptus which the Jewish settlers have planted,
and will continue to plant, in every part of Palestine ; thev
might also make profitable use of the important layers of peat
m the plain which surrounds Lake Merom, or, by a process of
briquettes similar to that employed in the Soudan, utilise the
papyrus and other aquatic plants which grow wild, in enormous
quantities, all along the Jordan Valley.

The agricultural and industrial development of Palestine will
both be helped by and stimulate a considerable growth of
commerce, for which the position of the country makes it
eminently fitted. Indeed, the geographical situation of
Palestine, between the Baghdad Railway and the Suez Canal,
between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, which marks it
out as the predestined junction of the great transcontinental

29

European, Asiatic and African railway systems of the future,
is pregnant with remarkable commercial possibilities. There
is no doubt that in a not distant future we shall see Palestine
become an important centre for goods and passenger traffic
between the three continents of the Old World.

But for the realisation of all these aims it is essential that
the present administrative chaos should give place to a modern
system of government inspired by no other consideration than
the welfare of the country. The efforts of private initiative
must be assisted and encouraged bv such measures of reform
as we have a right to expect from any conscientious Govern-
ment, such as the creation of accurate land registers, of an
agrarian bank, of chambers of commerce, agriculture and
industry, and of a uniform currency for the whole country ;*
the construction of convenient harbours and warehouses in the
principal towns of the coast ; the improvement of the existing
roads and the construction of new ones ; the establishment, in
place of the present tithes, which inflict a crushing burden on
gross produce and prevent intensive agriculture, of a rational
and equitable land-tax ; a radical reform of the law courts and
police, so that they may become capable of insuring effective
justice and security in the country ; the promulgation and
execution of modern laws as regards mortgages and transfers
of property ; and the institution of bounties for agriculture
and industrv.

Still more essential than all these reforms and new departures,
in order that the remarkable economic possibilities of the
country may be fully exploited, is the immigration of an intelr
ligent and industrious population, which would come to
Palestine not in order to make money and then go away again,
but in order, at one and the same time, to gain its own sub-
sistence and contribute to the economic progress of the country.
This fusion of interests, or, rather, this subordination of the
interests of the individual to those of the country, presupposes
a lofty idealism, and can only be demanded from a people which
looks upon it not as a sacrifice, but as an act of love and of
self-emancipation. There is only one such people, and that is
the Jewish people.

* At present the coins issued by the Government Have different values in the various
towns of Palestine, and the difference in some cases amounts to 20 per cent.

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D D 1 4 1? .- j- D '-J t? j. '_' j. O

Tolkowsky, Samuel, 1886

1955,
The Jewish colonisation

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